| Subject: |
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Yara pt. 5 |
| Name: |
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Neri Martinez |
| Date Posted: |
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Aug 9, 05 - 5:46 PM |
| Email: |
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freecubanow@hotmail.com |
| Website |
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http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/ |
| Message: |
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thoughts of Gandhi, King, and Marti took place over three days. The conference sought to find the commonalities of Jose Marti's, Mahatma Gandhi's, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s writings with a focus on non-violence. High School students throughout Dade County took part in a competition analyzing the writings of the three. The winning essay "Gandhi, King, and Marti: Brothers in Thought" by Imelys Sansores was published in the El Nuevo Herald on April 27, 1998.
On March 19, 1999, Christian Løvschall,father of murdered student Joachim Løvschall, is invited to Miami by the Free Cuba Foundation and holds a press conference demanding justice for his son. On March 29, 1999 the Free Cuba Foundation hosted a candlelight vigil at Florida International University to observe the second anniversary of the gunning down of Joachim Løvschall by Cuban State Security. Letters from family and friends were read aloud and a moment of silence observed. On that same day the Free Cuba Foundation co-sponsored an International Human Rights Film Festival with Amnesty International-FIU, the Association of People of African Ancestry and Culture, and Students for a Free Tibet. On December 10, 1999 the FCF co-sponsors a human rights conference at Florida International University and gives a presentation on the Joachim Lovschall case announcing the creation of a website at http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/joachim/.
On June 7, 1999 FCF gathered signatures from FIU students who support the 40-day fast taking place in Cuba at Tamarindo 34 organized by Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights. On July 13, 1999 FCF organized a 24-hour fast on the 5th anniversary of the July 13, 1994 tugboat massacre. Psalms 104 and 103 were read simultaneously with their readings at Tamarindo 34 at 6am and at 6pm. At 12 noon FIU students joined hands in a circle and engaged in a 5 minute moment of silence to remember the 5 years that had passed without justice or the return of the victims remains to their loved ones.
On October 27, 1999 FCF members visit New College in Sarasota and deliver a presentation on the Free Cuba Foundation, the human rights situation in Cuba, and the ongoing struggle of the democratic opposition. On Tuesday, April 25, 2000 at 7:30pm over a thousand Cubans peacefully marched together from Ocean Drive to the border of the Holocaust Memorial in remembrance of the 936 Jewish, men, women, and children sent back to Nazi Germany in 1939 after being denied asylum by both Cuba and the United States. We prayed to God, and asked for his forgiveness at committing such a horrific act. Helen Castro and members of the Free Cuba Foundation organized the march. In late April of 2001 FCF members traveled the length of California giving presentations to the Vietnamese exile community, the University of California -Santa Barbara, University of California-Davis on the human rights situation in Cuba, and the rising Cuban democratic opposition movement. Members of Young Americans for Freedom and Vietnam Youth served as guides and hosts to the FCFers.
Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu gave a lecture at Florida International University on the occasion of International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2002. Harry Wu invited by the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and by the Free Cuba Foundation to the human rights forum confirmed his total support for Cuba's political prisoners, the democratic opposition and the emerging civil society that, inside of Cuba, are fighting for the changes necessary to establish democracy. This was just part of FCF's commitment to support human rights movements and to remember the sacrifice of others.
On June 4, 1998 the Free Cuba Foundation and Students for a Free Tibet issued a joint statement to honor the students who sacrificed their lives for freedom and democracy in Tiananmen Square. The following year FCF issued a statement on the tenth anniversary of Tiananmen and in 2000 the Free Cuba Foundation showed a short film, held a vigil, and distributed fliers throughout Miami with the headline Remember June 4th! all in remembrance of the students massacred in Tiananmen Square.
Over the past five years the Free Cuba Foundation has organized year end symposiums at both Florida International University and the University of Miami inviting students returning home from school to a Cuba forum to listen to experts, meet and network among themselves. For example, on December 29, 1999 and December 23, 2000 FCF held mini-symposiums on Cuba for university students. Guest lecturers included experts such as: Frank Calzon, Janisett Rivero, Sebastian Arcos Cazabon, and Dr. Ricardo Bofill. On December 30, 2003 FCF organized a town hall Meeting moderated by Neri Martinez, President of the Free Cuba Foundation. Participating speakers were: past President of the Free Cuba Foundation Xavier Utset (1998), currently program officer for the Cuba program at Freedom Ho |
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